Across five decades, legendary artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, and Robert Rauschenberg have been employed by the preeminent luxury car company to use its coveted BMW car models as art canvases.
The now-famed project series, aptly dubbed the "BMW Art Cars," is a signature work by the company, and last Tuesday, May 21, it announced the latest artist to adorn one of its technological masterpieces: Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu.
Julie Mehretu's 'Art Car'
Mehretu, who is mostly known for her abstract pieces, was named the company's next "Art Car" artist last year. In turn, the painter chose to adapt one of her most famous artworks: "Everywhen," which is currently hung at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The canvas is the newly unveiled MW M Hybrid V8 that was first showcased at the Pompidou Center in Paris, ahead of its on-the-track exhibition at the "24 Hours of Le Mans" race this coming June.
A plug-in hybrid, the racing car is restricted only to on-track usage and was primarily created to compete in the international racing circuit. BMW collaborated with Italian race car manufacturer Dallara to design and engineer its latest technological marvel.
Characteristically, the vehicle's main points are its enormous rear wing and large vertical rudder, creating a low and wide aesthetical shape.
In the company's press release, Mehretu said of the piece: "In the studio where I had the model of the BMW M Hybrid V8 I was just sitting in front of the painting and I thought: What would happen if this car seemed to go through that painting and becomes affected by it."
"The idea was to make a remix, a mash-up of the painting. I kept seeing that painting kind of dripping into the car," she continued.
Mehretu seems to be the perfect choice for this current iteration of the "BMW Art Car," as the project exemplifies what her representatives in the Marian Goodman Gallery see in her whole oeuvre: "a dynamic visual articulation of contemporary experience..."
